Read More in Wild West Magazine Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!! In May 1913, a Missouri carpenter named Francis M. Lowe was arrested in La Paz on suspicion of being George Parker (Butch’s real name, according to the Pinkertons’ wanted posters). With the aid of the American Legation, Lowe established that his was a case of mistaken identity. In filing a report on the matter, an official at the legation advised U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan that ‘certain Englishmen and others here assert that a man known as George Parker [whom the La Paz police were seeking] had been killed in one of the provinces two or three years ago while resisting’ arrest. Shortly before Lowe was detained, William A. Pinkerton had heard about the San Vicente shootout, but had dismissed ‘the whole story as a fake.’ The agency never officially called off the search for Butch and Sundance. Indeed, in 1921, Mr. Pinkerton told an agent that ‘the last we heard of [the Sundance Kid]…he was in jail in Peru for an attempted bank robbery.

Butch Cassidy had been with him but got away and is supposed to have returned to the Argentine.’ Needless to say, the Pinkertons never caught up with the pair. This article was written by Anne Meadows and Daniel Buck and originally appeared in the February 1997 issue of Wild West. For more great articles, order your subscription of Wild West magazine today! Featured Article Cassidy: I’m Butch Cassidy. Powers: Well, what can I do for you? Cassidy: I’ll tell you. There’s a heap of charges out against me and considerable money offered for me in rewards. I’m getting sick of hiding out; always on the run and never able to stay long in one place. Now, when it comes to facts, I’ve kept close track of things and I know there ain’t a man left in the country who can go on the stand and identify me for any crime. All of them have either died or gone away. I’ve been thinking. Why can’t I go and just give myself up and stand trial on one of those old charges? Powers: No use. You’ve robbed too many big corporations in your time.

I do not doubt what you say, but if you were ever to go on trial you can depend on it, some one of those companies would bring someone to the stand who’d swear against you. No, you’ll have to keep on the run, I’m afraid. In substance, the two versions vary little, and had either author paraphrased the conversation, the slight differences would have likely gone unnoticed. However, both Kelly and Greene chose to report the conversation verbatim. Even then, the most notable difference concerns how Butch Cassidy was dressed. Kelly says ‘well-dressed,’ which suggests city clothes, while Greene says ‘overalls and a blue denim jumper,’ as if Cassidy had recently come off the trail. Granted, this is a minor inconsistency, but it does raise one’s curiosity. Something else in Kelly’s version is bothersome. He says Butch introduced himself to Powers as ‘George’ LeRoy Parker. Cassidy’s real name was Robert LeRoy Parker, a fact later verified by his family and by church records. It’s true that during his outlaw career Butch did use the name George Cassidy, and throughout his book Charles Kelly mistakenly refers to him as George.

However, if Butch chose to bare his soul to Powers and seek his help, would he not have used his real name? Again, this minor discrepancy would mean little if it were not that Kelly was purporting to provide a verbatim account of the meeting. Partly because of this slip, I chose Greene’s version over Kelly’s for my book on Cassidy, reducing Kelly’s account to an endnote reference. Another reason I favored Greene is that he had been a contemporary of Cassidy’s and might have even known him personally. What’s more, it’s rumored that Greene was related by marriage to the John Simpson family, who were Butch’s neighbors and close friends when he had his ranch near Dubois, Wyo. As minor as these discrepancies were, I couldn’t let them alone, so recently I dug a little deeper into the matter, hoping to find the source (or sources) of the two accounts. Thanks to a tip from Wild Bunch writers Dan Buck and Anne Meadows, it did not take long to learn where Greene’s version came from. He took it word for word from Frederick R.

Bechdolt’s 1924 book Tales of the Old Timers, a source that I had failed to track down when I was writing my biography of Cassidy. I was aware of the Bechdolt book at the time, but it had been out of print for years, and after a brief search for a copy I gave up looking. Frankly, I was put off by the title, thinking it was just one of those many potboilers on the Old West cranked out in the 1920s. After all, Bechdolt was primarily a novelist and short-story writer whose stories occasionally had been adapted by Hollywood for early two-reel Westerns. I had underestimated Bechdolt. It seems he also turned out some decent frontier history. So, if Bechdolt’s book was the first published account of the story of Butch’s offer to surrender, what was his source? Bechdolt’s Tales of the Old Timers was mostly about southwestern frontier characters. He devoted only one chapter to Butch Cassidy. Like Charles Kelly and A.F.C.

Greene, he did not include footnotes or endnotes, but he did provide a single page of ‘Acknowledgments.’ Among the names mentioned there with a connection to Cassidy were W.A. Richards (Wyoming governor during part of Butch’s outlaw career), Will Simpson (prosecutor at Butch’s trial in 1894) and James Simpson (Will Simpson’s son). Governor Richards and Will Simpson were at least possible sources for Bechdolt’s account of the Cassidy-Powers meeting. However, neither man was on the scene at the time of the meeting nor even indirectly involved in the incident. But what about Bechdolt himself? Although born in Pennsylvania, Frederick Ritchie Bechdolt (1874-1950) grew up in the West and attended the University of North Dakota and later the University of Washington. Following graduation from the latter in 1896, he was hired as a reporter by the Seattle Star. He soon moved on, and for the next 10 years he wrote for major newspapers in Oakland, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Salt Lake City. Reporters find ways to dig out information.

Being on the scene in Salt Lake City, possibly during the same year the Cassidy-Powers meeting took place or at least shortly thereafter, it is possible Bechdolt could have obtained the story, maybe even a stenographer’s record of the meeting. (Despite an obligation to keep information confidential, attorneys will tell you off the record that law offices can become leaky places when famous clients are involved. It was probably no different in those days.) Thus Bechdolt’s proximity to Powers could explain his version of the meeting, as well as give his account some credibility, but what about Kelly’s version? It is possible that he also might have had contact with persons who had known Powers. Although Kelly was not around at the time of the Cassidy-Powers meeting, he did spend many years in Salt Lake City. In 1919, following discharge from the Army, he married and settled down there. However, at that time his primary interest was music (he played the violin and cornet), not writing. It would be another 10 years before he published his first book and nearly two decades before publication of The Outlaw Trail. Of course, it is possible that Kelly simply rewrote the Bechdolt version.

Kelly’s acknowledgments in the second edition of The Outlaw Trail reveal that he also had access to Bechdolt’s book when he wrote the first edition. In fact, in 1939, a year after the first edition was published, Kelly admitted in a letter to Cassidy’s prosecutor, Will Simpson, that Bechdolt was one of his ‘principal authorities’ for The Outlaw Trail. But if he simply used Bechdolt’s version, why did he change it? Kelly was not averse to repeating verbatim earlier writers’ work, including Bechdolt’s (which he admitted in his letter to Simpson). However, he might have already lifted sizable portions of Bechdolt’s material on other aspects of Cassidy’s career and perhaps decided that he should give the conversation between Cassidy and Powers his own interpretation. In any case, Cassidy was no doubt discouraged when he left Powers’ office that day in 1899, but he was not ready to give up. He knew of someone else in Salt Lake City who might help him, someone who might be more receptive to his pursuit of a pardon and, more important, someone who had even better access to Utah Governor Heber Wells than attorney Orlando Powers.

That man was Parley P. Christensen. In his book, Charles Kelly describes Parley Christensen as a former sheriff of Juab County, Utah, a man who knew Butch Cassidy in his early years. However, when I checked with Juab County officials, they could find no record of a Parley P. Christensen having ever been sheriff of that county. Local records did list a town marshal by that name for the city of Nephi, the Juab County seat, but he was not appointed until 1914. Further digging revealed that the Parley P. Christensen from whom Cassidy sought help might have once been a sheriff, but by 1899 he, like Orlando Powers, had become a prominent Salt Lake City attorney. A graduate of the University of Deseret (later the University of Utah) and Cornell University School of Law, Christensen was a rising star in Republican politics and a familiar sight in the halls of the Utah Capitol. He and Governor Wells, also a Republican, were well acquainted, having both served as delegates to the Utah State Constitutional Convention in 1895. Christensen, in fact, had served as secretary of the convention and was later elected to the state Legislature.

(During that same fall, Christensen was elected Salt Lake County attorney and seemed destined for the governor’s office, but several years later he had a falling out with the Republican Party and eventually joined the Progressive movement. In 1920 he ran for president of the United States on the Farmer-Labor ticket.) Cassidy found Parley Christensen much more encouraging than Powers about his chances to obtain some form of clemency. Christensen quickly arranged an appointment for him with the governor. According to Kelly, after listening to Cassidy’s offer, Wells told him that if there were no murder warrants out for him, he thought something could be worked out. However, when the governor had his attorney general check the warrants on Cassidy, a murder charge did turn up. During a second meeting, the governor informed Butch that he was sorry, but there was nothing he could do for him. Cassidy insisted that he had never killed a man in his life, but that wasn’t the issue. The governor’s condition had been that there could be no murder warrants out for him, and one was found. Frankly, Butch should have expected as much.

After all, for the previous three years, when a bank or train robbery occurred in Utah or the surrounding states, Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch usually topped the list of suspects. If a bank or express car guard had been killed in one of those robberies, it is not surprising that Cassidy’s name was on a warrant. According to Kelly, at this point attorney Orlando Powers reentered the picture. He had come up with a novel idea. What if Cassidy agreed not only to give up his life of crime but also to go to work for the Union Pacific Railroad as an express guard? If so, perhaps the railroad would drop all charges against him. As a full-time employee of the railroad, Butch could not get away with much; his whereabouts would usually be known. Moreover, Powers could argue that, when other outlaws learned the famous Butch Cassidy was guarding the Union Pacific’s express cars, they might be hesitant to attack the train. Author A.F.C. Greene does not mention Powers’ idea. Lula Parker Betenson, Butch’s younger sister, does refer to it in her book, Butch Cassidy, My Brother, but Kelly was probably her source.

Frederick Bechdolt briefly discusses a variation of the story. He says Butch asked for a meeting with John Ward, sheriff of Uinta County, Wyo., at a mountain pass on the Denver & Rio Grande line. There, the wanted man informed Ward that he could ‘tell the railroads that they could take their gunmen off the trains,’ that they ‘ain’t going to need ’em’ anymore, because nothing ‘was going to come off, and you’ve got my word for that.’ Bechdolt, however, does not mention that Cassidy would ask for any kind of deal. What could Butch have gained from such an arrangement? Actually, not a whole lot. The Union Pacific officials could only forgive him for robberies on their line. At the time, the states of Wyoming and Utah wanted him, and Butch was also a suspect in bank or train robberies in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Montana and New Mexico. The Union Pacific officials could not grant amnesty for any of those offenses. But what does give some legs to the story that Cassidy might have accepted Powers’ suggestion and offered to work for the railroad company is a letter found in the Utah State Archives’ collection of the correspondence of Governor Wells.

The letter, addressed to Wells, was dated May 30, 1900. The writer was W.S. Seavey, then general agent of the Denver office of the Thiel Detective Service. Seavey wrote, ‘I desire to inform you that I have reliable information to the effect that if the authorities will let him alone and the UPRR officials will give him a job as guard, etc., the outlaw Butch Cassidy will lay down his arms, come in, give himself up, go to work and be a good peacable [sic] citizen hereafter.’ What adds to the letter’s credibility is that W.S. Seavey was not an ordinary part-time gumshoe. If Seavey considered his information as ‘reliable,’ it probably was. Seavey might have been a careless speller, but he was an experienced lawman who, before becoming a Thiel general agent, had served eight years as chief of the Omaha Police Department.

Kelly tells us that Powers presented the offer to the Union Pacific, and ‘after some discussion the railroad officials agreed to the plan and authorized Powers to get in touch with Cassidy.’ The author says Powers then wrote to Douglas Preston, Cassidy’s personal lawyer since the early 1890s, requesting that he get the word to Cassidy. He did, and, according to Kelly, Preston arranged to meet Cassidy in 10 days at ‘Lost Soldier Pass’ in southwestern Wyoming and bring along the Union Pacific’s chief detective and’some officials with power to make an agreement.’ The meeting at Lost Soldier Pass never came off. As Kelly told it, Cassidy showed up, but there was no Douglas Preston and no railroad officials. After waiting all day, Butch rode back to his hideout. Preston later claimed that he and his party were delayed by a storm, and when they finally did arrive and found Cassidy gone, Preston, ‘disgusted with his fruitless effort, savagely kicked at a flat stone [that was] lying under the lone cedar where the meeting was to have taken place.’ Underneath the stone he found a piece of paper on which Cassidy had written: ‘Damn you, Preston, you have double-crossed me.

I waited all day but you didn’t show up. Tell the U.P. to go to hell. And you can go with them.’ It is not difficult to believe that Cassidy was tired of running and wanted to surrender, and that at the urging of Orlando Powers he would have considered working for the Union Pacific Railroad in exchange for amnesty. Unlike most outlaws of his day, Butch did not appear to have an aversion to honest work. Although he had committed his first bank robbery in 1889, there is no evidence that he was involved in another major crime for more than seven years, not until the bank robbery in 1896 at Montpelier, Idaho, to obtain money to help his friend Matt Warner. It’s true that more than once during those seven years Cassidy probably helped himself to a rancher’s straying cattle, but among cowboys in Wyoming during the early 1890s, plucking a beef off the range was considered something akin to a part-time job. Butch also probably stole a few horses, which was looked upon more seriously (and for which he went to prison for 18 months).

And of course Cassidy has been credited with several major robberies during the last half of the 1890s; however, when he walked into lawyer Powers’ office that day in the fall of 1899 with the idea of surrendering, he had spent the previous year doing honest work, as assistant foreman and trail boss on the New Mexico Territory ranch of an Englishman, William French. It was hard, boring work ramrodding herds in the parched Southwest, but Butch Cassidy (known to rancher French as Jim Lowe) apparently enjoyed it. When the job of foreman opened up, he told French he wanted to take it, but by then the Pinkertons had come nosing around, and Butch felt it was wiser to leave. Years later, French had only good things to say about the man he knew as Jim Lowe. Therefore, it is not difficult to believe that Cassidy probably would have succeeded as an express car guard. However, to think that the railroad would have actually hired him for that position is another matter. This is not to say that the idea was new.

Hollywood writer-producer Glen Larson, who used just such an arrangement as a continuing plot for his 1970s Western TV series Alias Smith and Jones, claimed he got the idea from a reference to a similar arrangement he ran across while looking for story ideas in the files of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. And in telling of the incident, Butch’s sister Lula (or her co-author, professional writer Dora Flack), while admitting that the idea of an outlaw becoming a railroad guard sounded pretty far-fetched, insisted that in Butch’s case it was no ‘fairy tale’ and was ‘a plan familiar to lawmen.’ On the other hand, looking at such an arrangement from the railroad’s side, chances are the Union Pacific’s board of directors could not have stomached it. This group of investors had shelled out $110 million to purchase the line in 1893 and would have been more than a little nervous putting a known criminal on speeding trains that frequently carried thousands of dollars in bullion, coin and currency. Moreover, it is difficult to believe that E.H. Harriman, then president and a major stockholder of the Union Pacific, would have gone for such a deal.

Harriman was a problem solver, not a deal maker. For example, the previous year his answer to a flurry of train robberies was to station ‘posse cars’ (gutted baggage cars loaded with experienced railroad police and former lawmen on fast horses) at strategic points along the line, ready to be dispatched at the first word of a holdup. And the plan was apparently working. Furthermore, according to W.H. Park, then the Union Pacific’s general superintendent, at that particular time he and Harriman did not consider Butch Cassidy the most dangerous member of the Wild Bunch. They felt Harvey Logan deserved that title. Therefore, if presented with a plan for Cassidy to become an express car guard, Harriman and Park might have wondered just how much help Butch would be if a Harvey Logan-led gang of outlaws attacked one of their trains. In addition, implementing such a plan would have been a major problem. With an outlaw on the railroad’s payroll and possibly in position to learn of shipment dates and security details, it is likely that Union Pacific officials would have accepted the deal only if they could have been assured that Butch would be kept under surveillance night and day. Was that possible? Probably not.

Also, the truth of the story of the aborted meeting between Cassidy and representatives of the railroad has been put further in doubt by recently discovered evidence. The ‘Damn you, Preston’ note Butch allegedly left under a stone at Lost Soldier Pass might have been a forgery. Although Kelly spelled out the contents of the note in his book, it was assumed that the original note no longer existed–until sometime in the 1980s, when it mysteriously began circulating among rare document dealers. This caught the interest of writer Dan Buck, who, after several weeks of dogged detective work, discovered that the note might have been a creation of the notorious forger of Mormon documents, Mark Hofmann. It appears that Hofmann, or someone, might have written the note to conform to the story told by Charles Kelly. Although Buck hasn’t conclusively nailed down Hofmann as the culprit, he puts little faith in the note’s authenticity, as well as in the tale of the attempted rendezvous itself. In writing about the note and the alleged meeting, Buck, in the spring 2002 issue of The Journal of the Western Outlaw-Lawman History Association, raises several questions. Preston was Cassidy’s old friend and defense lawyer.

If he had failed to show up for a meeting, which, after all, was out in the middle of nowhere, would Cassidy have immediately accused him of a double-cross? Preston and his party were supposed to have been delayed by a storm. Would not Cassidy have weathered the same storm? The letter was written in ink. Would Cassidy have been carrying a pen and a bottle of ink in his saddlebags? And the note was not scribbled as it might have been by someone dashing off a message, perhaps using his saddle to write on. Instead, the handwriting was careful and neat, as if written on a desk. Cassidy supposedly hid the note under a rock, which just happened to be the rock that Preston, disgusted over Butch’s departure,’savagely kicked.’ Although Charles Kelly’s account of Cassidy’s aborted arrangement with Union Pacific officials now seems suspect, we should not come down too hard on Kelly. In The Outlaw Trail, Kelly did his best with the information he had, whatever the source. As tenuous as some of his facts might have been, Kelly provided a valuable starting point for subsequent research on Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch.

And to his credit, in the first edition of his book Kelly admitted that his information was sometimes conflicting and indefinite, and because of this he invited his readers to write him if they had additional ‘facts,’ so he could correct errors in future editions. Dan Buck and Anne Meadows, in their introduction to the University of Nebraska Press’ 1996 reprint edition of The Outlaw Trail, aptly describe the challenge Kelly faced in telling Butch Cassidy’s story. They quote former Western Publications editor John Joerschke, who, in addressing a 1994 gathering of outlaw history aficionados, cautioned his audience: ‘If you want to write a true story, write a novel,’ because the truth, the precious metal we seek, must be mined from ‘a mountain of lies, legends and missing clues.’ This article was written by Richard Patterson and originally appeared in the February 2006 issue of Wild West. Richard Patterson devotes his time to legal writing and frontier history. His books Butch Cassidy: A Biography and Train Robbery: The Birth, Flowering and Decline of a Notorious Western Enterprise are recommended for further reading, along with Frederick R.

Bechdolt’s Tales of the Old Timers; Lula Parker Betenson’s Butch Cassidy, My Brother; and the introduction by Dan Buck and Anne Meadows to the 1996 reprint of Charles Kelly’s The Outlaw Trail: A History of Butch Cassidy and His Wild Bunch. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Wild West magazine today! More Butch Cassidy Articles Interview With Author Mark Smokov Author Mark Smokov brings Wild Bunch outlaw Harvey Logan (aka Kid Curry) out of Butch Cassidy’s shadow. Book Review: He Rode With Butch and Sundance, by Mark T. Smokov Author Mark Smokov makes the case that Harvey Logan (aka Kid Curry) was not just another member of the Wild Bunch under Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Book Review: The Last Outlaws, by Thom Hatch Author Thom Hatch delivers a dual biography of Butch and Sundance, notorious outlaws as inseparable in life as in death. Letter From Wild West – April 2013 Con man Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II stirred up trouble on the frontier and still sparks controversy today.

Butch Cassidy is born - Apr 13, 1866 - HISTORY.com Butch Cassidy is born Publisher A+E Networks Butch Cassidy, the last of the great western train-robbers, is born on this day in Beaver, Utah Territory. Born Robert Leroy Parker, he was the son of Mormon parents who had answered Brigham Young’s call for young couples to help build communities of Latter Day Saints on the Utah frontier. Cassidy was the first of 13 children born to Max and Annie Parker. When Cassidy was 13 years old, the family moved to a ranch near the small Mormon community of Circleville. He became an admirer of a local ruffian named Mike Cassidy, who taught him how to shoot and gave him a gun and saddle. With Cassidy’s encouragement, the young man apparently began rustling, eventually forcing him to leave home during his mid-teens under a cloud of suspicion. For several years, he drifted around the West using the name Roy Parker. Finally, on June 24, 1889, he committed his first serious crime, robbing a bank in Telluride, Colorado, for more than $20,000.

As a fugitive, he took to calling himself George Cassidy, a nod to his first partner in crime back in Utah. Wishing to lay low, for a time he worked in a Rock Springs, Wyoming, butcher shop, earning the nickname that would complete one of the most famous criminal aliases in history, “Butch” Cassidy. In 1894, Butch Cassidy was arrested for horse theft in Wyoming. After serving two years in the Wyoming Territorial Prison at Laramie, Cassidy was pardoned. He immediately returned to a life of crime, this time gathering around him a local band of carousing outlaws that became known as the Wild Bunch. Cassidy’s most famous partner was Harry Longbaugh, better known as the “Sundance Kid.” Other members included the quick-to-kill Harvey Logan (“Kid Curry”), Ben Kilpatrick (“Tall Texan”), Harry Tracy, Deaf Charley Hanks, and Tom Ketchum (“BlackJack”). By 1897, Cassidy was solidly in control of a sophisticated criminal operation that was active in states and territories from South Dakota to New Mexico.

The Wild Bunch specialized in holding up railroad express cars, and the gang was sometimes called the Train Robbers’ Syndicate. Between robberies, Cassidy rendezvoused with various lovers around the West and took his gang on unruly vacations to Denver, San Antonio, and Fort Worth. By the turn of the century, however, the wild days of the West were rapidly fading. Once deserted lands were being tamed and settled, and western states and territories were creating an increasingly effective law-enforcement network. Tired of his robberies, railroad executives hired detectives to catch Cassidy and began placing mounted guards in railcars to pursue the Wild Bunch. In 1901, Cassidy fled the U.S. for Argentina accompanied by his lover, Etta Place, and the Sundance Kid. The trio homesteaded a ranch at Cholila, though Place returned to the United States after several years. In 1904, Cassidy and Sundance learned that detectives had tracked them to South America. They abandoned the Cholila ranch and resumed a life of robbery in Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia.

Though there is no evidence definitely to confirm it, Bolivian troops reportedly killed the partners in the village of San Vicente in 1908. The families of both men insist, however, that the men survived and returned to live into old age in the United States. Related Videos Butch Cassidy - Thief - Biography.com Butch Cassidy Outlaw Butch Cassidy, also known as Robert Leroy Parker, partnered with the Sundance Kid to rob banks and trains in the early 1900s. IN THESE GROUPS Famous People Born in Beaver Synopsis Butch Cassidy was born Robert Leroy Parker on April 13, 1866, in Beaver, Utah. In 1900, he partnered with Harry Longabaugh, nicknamed the “Sundance Kid,” to rob banks and trains as leaders of the Wild Bunch, a group of outlaws. They eluded police by escaping to South America. In 1906, they returned to crime. It is believed they were trapped and killed by police in Bolivia in 1908, but reports vary.

Early Years Considered one of the great hustlers of the American West, Butch Cassidy was born Robert LeRoy Parker on April 13, 1866, in Beaver, Utah. The oldest of 13 children in a poor Mormon family, Parker was a teenager when he left home in the hopes of carving out a better, more prosperous life than what his parents had been able to provide. He found work on several different ranches and eventually befriended a rancher named Mike Cassidy, who'd had a reputation for stealing cattle and horses. Young Parker admired the elder Cassidy and, wanting to emulate his friend and not disrespect his family, changed his name to Butch Cassidy. Young Outlaw By all accounts Cassidy was a charming thief, who was well-liked and who never, it's believed, killed anyone. His first taste of a major robbery came in June 1889, when he and three other cowboys made off with more than $20,000 from the San Miguel Valley Bank in Telluride, Colorado. After purchasing a ranch of his own in Dubois, Wyoming, in 1890, Cassidy continued to rustle cattle and horses.

In 1894 the law caught up to him, and he was jailed for two years for the crime. Despite his criminal background, Cassidy had a reputation for keeping his word. As one story goes, on the night before he was to begin his sentence, Cassidy asked to be released, promising he'd return to jail the following day. Authorities took him at his word and let him go, and Cassidy returned to them the following morning. Upon his full release in 1896, Cassidy resumed his life as a criminal. With several other well-known outlaws, including Harry Longabaugh (a.k.a. the "Sundance Kid"), William Ellsworth Lay ("Elzy Lay"), Ben Kilpatrick (the "Tall Texan") and Harvey Logan ("Kid Curry") -- a group known as “the Wild Bunch” -- Cassidy embarked on what is considered the longest stretch of successful train and bank robberies in American history. Beginning with an August 1896 bank robbery in Montpelier, Idaho, in which the gang made off with more than $7,000, the group hit banks and trains in South Dakota, New Mexico, Nevada and Wyoming.

Between their robberies the men hid out at the Hole-in-the-Wall Pass, located in Johnson County, Wyoming, where a number of outlaw gangs had their hideouts. With each new robbery the Bunch became better known, and better liked by an American public eager to read about their exploits.Their robberies too became bigger. One of the largest was a $70,000 haul from a train just outside Folsom, New Mexico. Unable to stop the Bunch, the Union Pacific Railroad went so far as to propose to Cassidy a pardon in exchange for the promise of ending his robberies and coming to work for the company as an express guard. Cassidy turned the offer down. On the Run In the end the Union Pacific turned to law enforcement to put a permanent end to the Wild Bunch. To hunt Cassidy and the group down, the company hired the famed Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which pushed Cassidy and the Sundance Kid into South America. As the story goes, the pair continued to rob trains and banks in South America. The conventional account says Cassidy and the Sundance Kid lost their lives in a shootout with soldiers in southern Bolivia on November 6, 1908.

Death and Controversy But the truth about their end has never been fully settled. Some historical evidence suggests that Cassidy faked his death and returned to the United States with a new name: William T. Phillips. Back in his home country, Cassidy lived another three decades, making a living as a machinist before passing away from cancer in Spokane, Washington, in 1937. The man known as Phillips helped fuel speculation with a book he wrote in the 1920s called The Invincible Bandit: The Story of Butch Cassidy, which included details perhaps only Cassidy might have known. While the debate lingers over when and where Cassidy truly died, there's little argument that he's considered one of the most revered outlaws to come out of the American West. His life and relationship with Sundance was immortalized in the 1969 Oscar-winning movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, starring Paul Newman (Cassidy) and Robert Redford (Sundance). Related Videos Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

Citation Information Butch Cassidy - Piute County, Utah Butch Cassidy Piute County Legendary Outlaw Butch Cassidy Circleville boasts of their famous (or infamous) Robert Leroy Parker, better known as Butch Cassidy, who spent his youth there during the 1870s and 1880s. His boyhood home still stands near U.S. 89, two miles south of town. In the summer months it is open for visitors. Piute County is Butch Cassidy Country in more ways than one. Here he is thought of with a little more kindness and tolerance than one might expect. It was in Circleville that he grew up, and here that he learned how to change cattle brands and evade the law. In the Globe newspaper, the following item was written and published on December 20, 1988. You can't believe the movies! Butch Cassidy died in bed. Romantic outlaw, Butch Cassidy, didn't die with his six guns blazing in a murderous shootout with soldiers in Bolivia, as many historians believe. He passed away peacefully in bed with his boots off.

Cassidy's nephew, John Betenson, says his uncle and his fast-draw partner Harry Longabough, the Sundance Kid, spread the story about their deaths so that detectives, who were hot on their trail, would call off their manhunt. "There was a battle with soldiers and two men did die that afternoon, explains Betenson, a 68-year-old retired rancher in Circleville, Utah. It was two lesser members of the outlaw gang who bit the dust. Butch and Sundance simply assumed their identities. "The Bolivian soldiers who captured them were told they had killed the infamous train robbers, and the troopers were happy enough to believe it. The trick worked, and once the trail was cold, Butch and Sundance rode off in to the sunset and anonymous retirement. I know that's the chain of events, says Betenson. My mother, who died in 1980 at the age of 96, was Butch's sister, and he visited her in 1925, when I was just five years old. I remember that if the subject of my uncle came up at the dinner table, we were taught to act as if we had never heard of him.

Of course, everybody around these parts knew he was my mother's brother. True of false, the Bolivian shootout provided a rip-roaring finish to the smash-hit movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which starred Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Betenson told Globe that Butch was using the alias William Phillips when he died of cancer in 1937. But he won't say where the outlaw is buried for fear that trophy hunters might try to unearth his remains. My uncle's real name was Robert Leroy Parker, he says. An outlaw named Mike Cassidy took a liking to him when he was 16 and showed him how to shoot. He was so fond of Cassidy that he took his last name. Betenson adds, Butch told my mother he had run into the Sundance Kid in Texas a few years before, so we know both men escaped death in South America.

Copyright ©2007-2012 Piute County Chamber of Commerce Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Pages: ( 1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) Background Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) is the likeably entertaining, charming and amusing comedy/drama of the friendship and camaraderie shared between the two handsome and humorous buddy leads - legendary, turn-of-the-century Western outlaws and their "Hole in the Wall" gang. Historical antecedents for the two daring "Robin Hood" outlaws actually existed, two notorious figures who were sadly anachronistic for their turn-of-the-century times: "Butch Cassidy" (outlaw Robert Leroy Parker) "The Sundance Kid" (outlaw Harry Longbaugh) In the early 1900s, they came toward the tail-end of a long stream of bank/train robbers and highwaymen in the 19th century. Their exploits were perfect for a film that was intended to portray outlaws who mock and defy authority and the Establishment.

After relentless pursuit by authorities, the train-robbing outlaws fled to Bolivia (after a brief stopover in New York City) with the Kid's schoolteacher-lover - hoping to find better luck. Instead of the ultra-violence typical of other outlaw films, the screenplay (William Goldman's first screenplay - he also authored The Great Waldo Pepper (1975) and Marathon Man (1976)) and the direction of George Roy Hill focused on the endearing mis-adventures of the bandits/heroes, using impudent slapstick comedy, conventional Western action, contemporary music, and humorous dialogue to characterize the past and irreverently poke fun at typical western film cliches. The whimsical revisionist Western film, with the new "M" rating (for mature), although varying considerably in tone and mood, did so by imitating the styles of other cultish outlaw films, including director Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde (1967) , and the balletic graceful shootouts of Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969) .

The good-natured film from director George Roy Hill, one of the most popular (and highest-grossing) westerns ever made, revived the careers of two 'golden-boy' Hollywood actors: superstar Paul Newman (in most of his previous films, he had been a rebellious loner - The Hustler (1961) , Hud (1963) , and Cool Hand Luke (1967) ) newcomer Robert Redford - who had previously appeared in stage plays and only a few films (i.e., Barefoot in the Park (1967)) [Warren Beatty was originally slated for the Butch role, and Steve McQueen for the Sundance Kid role.] The two male leads would again co-star (only once more) as big-screen buddies in George Roy Hill's Best Picture winner The Sting (1973), with ten Oscar nominations and seven wins. The flip-side of this light-hearted buddy picture was its major competitor of the year, the X-rated, dark Midnight Cowboy (1969) with its anti-heroes Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) and Joe Buck (Jon Voight).

Of the seven Academy Award nominations, there were four Oscars: Goldman was awarded an Oscar for Best Story and Screenplay and Conrad Hall was honored for his cinematography. Two other statues went to Burt Bacharach for Best Song ("Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head," lyrics by Hal David) and Best Original Score. The other three nominations were for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Sound. The Story The film opens with the credits next to a sepia-toned "film within a film" of "The Hole In The Wall Gang." The silent flicker portrays the legendary outlaw gang holding up a train. The group's exploits in the newsreel-style film bear a resemblance to, and were said to have inspired one of the earliest classic films, The Great Train Robbery (1903) , by Edwin S. Porter. A title card suggests that the film about legendary characters is reasonably authentic and factual: Most of What Follows Is True The sepia tone of the newsreel is extended into the first sequence.

[The beginning of the film's action is set just before the turn of the century.] In the memorable opening, the screen is filled with an immense close-up of the face of sly, funny, witty, smart-ass, egotistical, and handsome Butch Cassidy [(Paul Newman) not identified as Butch until later in the film]. Still framed in extreme close-up, he stops and glances in a window in town - one that is heavily barred. From the outside of a modern, high-security bank, he expertly surveys and cases the frontier town's building, looking at other higher-up barred windows. In the bank's front door, he stands and observes the bank's strong measures against robbery: a security button and an alarm bell. At the three o'clock closing, he watches the banker deposit a sack of money in a large bank safe, enclosed behind more bars. There are loud slammings of window covers, latches, and doors. He notices how secure it is and how things have changed - asking the uniformed guard: Butch: What happened to the old bank? It was beautiful. Guard: People kept robbing it. Butch: That's a small price to pay for beauty.

Butch's partner is introduced in a similar, sepia-toned sequence filmed in close-up. During a blackjack card game in Macon's Saloon - a typically cliched Western scene, Butch's partner, a dead-panning, silent, dim-witted, mustached, dark-hatted cardsharp 'The Sundance Kid' [(30 year old Robert Redford in a breakout role) not identified by name until later] deals cards to other players at a gaming table. One opponent named Tom folds his hands and asks for credit from the saloon owner/gunman Mr. Macon (Donnelly Rhodes), but is denied. Off-camera, Macon confronts the mustached player: Macon: Well, it looks like you just about cleaned everybody, fella - you haven't lost a hand since you got the deal. What's the secret of your success? Sundance: (mono-syllabically) Prayer. Macon: Let's just you and me play. Sundance plays against his final, sole opponent - a professional gambler and gunman and the only one left at the table.

When Macon busts, he accuses Sundance of cheating while the card player is raking in his winnings and stacking everything neatly in piles: "You're a helluva card player fella. I know, cause I'm a helluva card player. And I can't even spot how you're cheatin'." Although Sundance attempts to ignore the insulting accusation, other players back off. Macon stands with his immense hand readied by his holstered gun: "The money stays - you go." Butch enters the saloon - he would rather rely on his brains than gunplay, and so he interrupts an impending shoot-out: Butch: We seem to be a little short on brotherly love around here. Macon: If you're with him, you'd better get yourselves out of here. Butch: (urging his partner) We're on our way. Come on. Sundance: (with his head slightly down) I wasn't cheating. Butch: (now more urgently as he drops down beside him) Come on! Sundance: (louder) I wasn't cheating. Macon: You can die. For that matter, you can both die. Butch: You hear that?

Butch Cassidy in Wyoming | WyoHistory.org Butch Cassidy in Wyoming Mac Blewer Butch Cassidy in Wyoming Robert LeRoy Parker, later known as Butch Cassidy, was the eldest of 13 children of Maxi and Anne Gillies Parker. He was born April 13, 1866, in Beaver, Utah. His family’s struggle with finances and his father’s loss of property to a neighbor in the good graces of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may have impacted the young Roy’s attitude toward citizens in places of authority. After his family moved south to a new homestead in Circleville in 1879 the young man met Mike Cassidy, a local ranch hand who taught him to ride, rope and shoot—and how to rustle livestock. The young man was so impressed with his mentor that in later years he took his last name. The outlaw Butch Cassidy While the circumstances surrounding Roy’s leaving home are murky, his youngest sister, Lula, writes in her memoir that he took the blame for a local rustling incident to clear the charges against two married men.

When he was 18, he drifted up to Colorado and then Wyoming Territory where he continued his life as a rustler, using hideouts in Brown’s Park, a remote area where the borders of Wyoming, Colorado and Utah intersect, and perhaps in the Hole-in-the-Wall country of the southern Bighorn Mountains in northern Wyoming Territory. Although strong evidence points to his participation in a bank robbery in Telluride, Colo., on June 14, 1889, with the McCarty brothers, the newspapers at the time did not mention his name. During this period he primarily worked as a ranch hand for various outfits in Brown’s Park, the remote Bighorn Basin in northern Wyoming Territory and around Dubois on the upper Wind River . Roy Parker’s purchase of a stolen horse for five dollars from a rustler named Billy Nutcher led to his eventual conviction in Judge Jesse Knight’s court in Lander, Wyo. in 1894 and incarceration at the Wyoming State Penitentiary—the former territorial prison—in Laramie, Wyo. By this time Roy had taken the name of George Cassidy, with a nickname “Butch,” according to court and prison records. He was sentenced to two years.

The prosecuting attorney on the case was Will Simpson, the grandfather of U.S. Senator Alan Simpson and longtime University of Wyoming Vice President Pete Simpson. Not much is known about Cassidy’s time in jail, but according to some accounts, he conducted himself as a model prisoner. Although he was a little known rustler, Judge Knight and others were impressed by his intelligence and charisma, and saw him as a potential threat. Yet Knight and Gov. William Richards organized an early release and pardon for Cassidy. Partly this may have been due to an error Knight made during the trial. Knight was quite frank in a letter to the governor , saying that he was “distressed” that he had failed to tell the jury that it is a crime to buy stolen goods in Wyoming only if a person does so knowingly—and it’s not clear if Cassidy knew the horse he bought was stolen. Richards asked Knight to circulate a petition of Fremont County leaders vouching for Cassidy’s character, providing the governor with some political cover for this pardon. Cassidy was released early in 1896, after 18 months in prison. “The question is,” Richards wrote to Knight, “will Cassidy do as we tell him to?” Cassidy did not.

Within a few months he formed a gang, known as the Cassidy Gang or the Wild Bunch, and eventually became one of the most successful robbers of his era. He made allies of some ranchers supposedly by paying off their mortgages and spreading money liberally to the poor. People told these stories often, and a kind of Robin Hood folklore arose around the bandit. The Wild Bunch used hideouts from Arizona’s Mogollon Rim and Utah’s Robbers Roost to South Dakota’s Black Hills. In Wyoming and its adjacent borderlands, the gang used many refuges, including Brown’s Park, Hoback Canyon, Hole in the Wall, Powder Wash, the Red Desert, Star Valley, Wind River Canyon and the Wind River Mountains. Indeed, the outlaws adopted namesakes of the lands that they used and were known also as the Bitter Creek Gang near Rock Springs , the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, the Powder Wash Gang and the Red Desert Gang.

Wilcox and Tipton robberies Although many people told tales of Cassidy’s gang robbing banks and stagecoaches in Wyoming, the only two confirmed Wild Bunch crimes in the Cowboy State, aside from Cassidy’s early rustling, were the robberies of Union Pacific trains at Wilcox and Tipton. According to the Laramie Boomerang, six masked men flagged the Overland Flyer down at 2:15 a.m. on June 2, 1899, near Wilcox in Albany County northwest of present Rock River. After they commandeered the train and pulled it over a bridge, they blew open the baggage car with an oversized dynamite charge, dazing the baggage man. The Rawlins Semi-Weekly Republican reported that after placing an excessive charge on the safe, they “wrecked the car, blowing the roof off and sides out, portions of the car being blown 150 yards.” Taking more than $50,000 in gold, cash, jewelry and banknotes from the safe, the outlaws escaped on horseback.

Cassidy, if he was there, appears to have left the scene separately, and three other bandits fled north through Casper , heading for the Hole-in-the-Wall country. Converse County Sheriff Joe Hazen was mortally wounded in a shootout on Castle Creek north of Casper. Posses of hundreds of men, funded by the Union Pacific, some equipped with bloodhounds shipped in from Beatrice, Neb., pursued the robbers for weeks. The robbers eluded the posses and disappeared into the country near Hole in the Wall. Arguably Cassidy’s most infamous crime, the Wilcox robbery won national attention and the ire of three governors —probably the newspapers in making this claim were referring to the governors of Wyoming, Colorado and Utah—of President McKinley, the Department of State and the Union Pacific Railroad . The fact that Cassidy had the temerity to rob a train carrying gold for payment of troops fighting in the Spanish-American War was viewed by McKinley and others as much more than an inconvenience. From that time forward, Cassidy was labeled a national terrorist. Authorities set huge bounties--$18,000, newspapers reported, after the Wilcox robbery—for the capture of the outlaws, dead or alive.

Cassidy’s participation in the Wilcox robbery has never fully been established. The Pinkertons—the famous detective agency of the era—suspected several men, including Flat-nosed George Currie, Harvey and Lonny Logan and Bob Lee. The shooting of Sheriff Hazen and the robbers’ hasty retreat, some of it on foot, appears to point to some poor planning, which was not a trademark of Cassidy. Supposedly, unsigned bank notes, singed bills and bills stained with raspberry juice from a damaged fruit crate were used to track down robbers including Lonny Logan and Bob Lee, within a few years. Although bounty hunters, lawmen like Joe LeFors and Pinkerton detectives like Charlie Siringo and Tom Horn pursued Cassidy from Wyoming to Texas, he was not deterred. His Wild Bunch continued their activities throughout the West. On Aug. 29, 1900, Cassidy again struck a Union Pacific train in Wyoming near Tipton, about 50 miles west of Rawlins. Again, using too much dynamite, the bandits blew up the safe in the express car, gathered the money and valuables and rode southward towards Brown’s Park.

According to lawman Joe LeFors and Union Pacific staff, only $50.40 was taken. The Saratoga Sun noted the following month, however, that it was unlikely so small an amount had been stolen, and that railroad officials were most likely using the claim to cover up the inconvenient truth of how vulnerable train shipments were to robbery. Although the true amount stolen is still not known, estimates range from $50,000 to $100,000. Was Cassidy at Tipton? There is little agreement among authors or literary sources. The robbers do appear to have prepared better this time, however. They hid fresh horses every 20 miles along a planned escape route, supposedly a trademark of a Cassidy job. In addition, there may be a Cassidy imprint in the story in the Sept. 11, 1900, Wyoming Tribune attributed to a Conductor Kerrigan in which the robbers refused to steal from the Union Pacific railroaders and cordially called out to them, “goodbye boys,” as they left. South America and beyond Cassidy remained active for another year and may have participated in a Wagner, Mont., train robbery on July 3, 1901.

However with many of his henchmen and friends either captured, killed or on the run, Cassidy must have felt that his time was drawing to a close. By most accounts, Cassidy left New York in February 1901 with his most frequent partner, Harry Longabaugh—the Sundance Kid—and Longabaugh’s companion Etta Place and sailed to Buenos Aires, Argentina. They purchased a ranch in Cholila, Argentina and prospered, raising cattle and horses. Then, under pressure from authorities investigating a holdup, they left. Etta traveled back to the United States and then disappeared. In a magnificent vanishing act, Butch and Sundance also slipped from view. After working for several mining companies--ironically Cassidy was a payroll guard for the Concordia Tin Mines in Tres Cruces, Bolivia--and engaging in several bank and payroll robberies, the pair may have ended up in a gunfight with local police in San Vicente, Bolivia. By some accounts they died, with Cassidy killing Sundance and then shooting himself after both were badly wounded. Other reports point to stories that show Cassidy escaped and made his way back to the United States using a different name.

According to the reminiscences of Cassidy’s early girlfriend, Josie Bassett of Brown’s Park, Lander lawman Hank Boedecker, family members Lula Parker Betenson and Bill Betenson and others, Cassidy returned in the 1920s to Brown’s Park, Colorado, Fremont County in Wyoming and Circleville, Utah, among other places in the American West. Outlaw historian Larry Pointer remarked during a 2012 presentation at the Wyoming Territorial Prison “surely all of these people were not delusional.” But perhaps these citizens wanted to see Cassidy again. During the outlaw’s heyday, he had appeared to the press and the public to be the invincible bandit, the invulnerable bank robber, the unvanquished. As the Aug. 13, 1898, Wyoming Press reported, “Butch seems to have as many lives as the historical cat.” As someone who dominated the headlines for years, his death would have been difficult to accept. Still, there is no definitive proof that he returned from South America. At least one man, William T.

Phillips, also known as William Wilcox, was a Cassidy impersonator and returned to Wyoming in search of the real outlaw’s reputed gold cache buried in the Wind River Mountains. Phillips also visited Cassidy’s friends such as Mary Boyd, another former paramour, and others. Phillips died in Spokane, Wash. in 1937. Cassidy is supposedly buried in dozens of spots around the United States, Europe, Central and South America, often reported as dying and being buried more than once in one locale. In the United States there is no known grave for the public and his supporters to visit. Historians Pointer and Art Davidson, for example, offer several contrasting opinions: that Cassidy either rests in a quiet spot in Utah known only to his family, or his ashes were scattered in Washington state in the Little Spokane River, or his remains are located in an unmarked grave at Johnnie, Nev., where he may have died in a mining accident. Cassidy is immortalized on the landscape of the American West in places named after him, and at modern-day festivals held in his honor at reputed treasure locations and robbery sites.

Places on the landscape directly named after Cassidy include Cassidy’s Corner and Cassidy Creek in Wyoming, Cassidy Point in Browns Park, Colorado and Cassidy Arch, Cassidy Rock, Cassidy Cave, Cassidy Trail and Butch Cassidy Draw in southern Utah. Butch Cassidy is clearly a household name in America today. As C. Watt Brandon stated in the Sept. 29, 1950, Kemmerer Gazette, “The name of Butch Cassidy will probably never disappear from the records of Wyoming’s last frontier.” And thanks to the iconic film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid released in 1969, it is doubtful that the name of Butch Cassidy will disappear from the frontier of the public imagination anytime soon. Resources Trailer - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) - YouTube Trailer - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Published on Jun 13, 2012 Paul Newman and Robert Redford set the standard for the "buddy film" with this smash hit set in the Old West. The Sundance Kid (Redford) is the frontier's fastest gun. His sidekick, Butch Cassidy (Newman), is always dreaming up new ways to get rich fast. Category Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) - IMDb IMDb 7 January 2017 5:00 AM, UTC NEWS There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ( 1969 ) Approved | Two Western bank/train robbers flee to Bolivia when the law gets too close. Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC "No Small Parts" IMDb Exclusive: 'Edge of Seventeen' Star Hailee Steinfeld Hailee Steinfeld has received critical acclaim for her role in the coming-of-age comedy The Edge of Seventeen .

What other roles has she played over the years? Don't miss our live coverage of the Golden Globes beginning at 4 p.m. PST on Jan. 8 in our Golden Globes section. a list of 44 titles created 21 Sep 2011 a list of 35 titles created 26 Dec 2013 a list of 22 titles created 09 Feb 2014 a list of 24 titles created 9 months ago a list of 43 titles created 2 weeks ago Title: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) 8.1/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 4 Oscars. Another 16 wins & 14 nominations. See more awards » Videos A man refuses to conform to life in a rural prison. Director: Stuart Rosenberg In Chicago in September 1936, a young con man seeking revenge for his murdered partner teams up with a master of the big con to win a fortune from a criminal banker.

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Director: David Lean A private detective hired to expose an adulterer finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption and murder. Director: Roman Polanski Fred Dobbs and Bob Curtin, two Americans searching for work in Mexico, convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains. Director: John Huston A young recruit in Vietnam faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man. Director: Oliver Stone Edit Storyline Butch and Sundance are the two leaders of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. Butch is all ideas, Sundance is all action and skill. The west is becoming civilized and when Butch and Sundance rob a train once too often, a special posse begins trailing them no matter where they run. Over rock, through towns, across rivers, the group is always just behind them. When they finally escape through sheer luck, Butch has another idea, "Let's go to Bolivia". Based on the exploits of the historical characters. Written by John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net> You never met a pair like Butch and The Kid.

See more » Genres: 24 October 1969 (USA) See more » Also Known As: The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy See more » Filming Locations: Did You Know? Trivia Conrad Hall was not pleased with the night shots in the film, such as the one in which a man is selling bicycles down on the street. He thought they had too much light and shadows and told film critic Leonard Maltin he preferred really dark night shots, such as the ones in Bonnie and Clyde (1967). See more » Goofs When Butch and Sundance blow up the safe on the train, their hats are blown off by the force of the explosion. A bare-headed Butch looks over as the second train arrives. The second train is shown for a moment and when the film cuts back to Butch, he suddenly has his hat on. See more » Quotes Butch Cassidy : What happened to the old bank? It was beautiful. Guard: People kept robbing it. Butch Cassidy : Small price to pay for beauty. Opening disclaimer: Most Of What Follows Is True See more » Connections RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN' ON MY HEAD B.J. Thomas sings (as B. J.

Thomas) (United States) – See all my reviews I can remember seeing this movie, at the Colony Theater in Portsmouth Virginia, when it was first released. Since then, I've seen it at least 30 times, most recently last night. In my humble opinion, Paul Newman & Robert Redford made an excellent movie twosome 30 years ago [and expanded on it a few years later, in The Sting]. In reading the reviews submitted about this movie it makes me happy to see that most of the people agree with my opinion. How could you not like these characters, along with Etta, "those guys" following them and eventually Strother [who will always be remembered for his "what we have here is a failure to communicate" in Cool Hand Luke] Martin? Not to mention the scenes where Etta enters the picture, when Butch has to fight Logan, when they have to jump in the water and, of course, the ending sequence of events. I won't say "they don't make them like they used to", but this one is a keeper.

And if you agree with my evaluation, and have a DVD player, watch the DVD that has interviews, etc., to give you an even better picture of this excellent movie. 31 of 42 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes

Question: Who was Butch Cassidy's partner?
Answer: The Sundance Kid